Samsung really wants you to start talking to your fridge

Samsung is still finding ways to pack more features into perhaps the least exciting thing in your house: your refrigerator.

The tech giant announced today at CES a new version of its smart refrigerator that now includes voice controls, AKG speakers, and smart home integrations.

The new Samsung Family Hub refrigerator has many of the same options as the original 2016 model, but adds a bunch of entertainment and smart home controls. Now, you can use the fridge to operate smart home products using Samsung's Bixby voice assistant.

That's right: Samsung is turning your fridge into a centralized hub for your smart home. The fridge works with any SmartThings product and lets you control these items using voice commands.

Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

For example, you can ask Bixby to show you a live video feed from an internet-connected camera (like a baby monitor or security camera), or dim the lights around your home. The fridge's display makes it easy to navigate through various smart home devices.

The new Family Hub refrigerator also adds a couple of extra options like a meal planner that provides food recipes and accommodates for dietary restrictions. The fridge also works as an entertainment hub, letting you play music, share calendars, photos, memos, and more.

The entire concept is way more than anyone's ever asked for from a refrigerator, but there are certainly some interesting things it enables. Mainly, I'm impressed by how useful it might actually be to have a gigantic tablet built into a fridge. Posting digital sticky notes or sharing calendars, to me, seem like really useful features. Of course, you could always just do it the old-fashioned way with a pen, paper, and a magnet.

For more coverage from the event, check out our official CES page.